Joan Rubinger built a prominent sports medicine practice treating some of the biggest names in professional sports. The nurse practitioner's website touts a client list that includes 169 NFL Pro Bowl selections, 29 NBA and WNBA champions and 15 Olympic medalists. But behind the scenes, the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration alleged in court filings, Rubinger secretly doled out illegal prescriptions for hundreds of thousands of highly addictive painkillers to clients in more than 20 states. Authorities allege she issued controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose and instructed clients on how to avoid scrutiny from federal investigators. The DEA last month revoked the nurse practitioner’s authority to prescribe controlled substances, citing what an administrative law judge found to be egregious conduct.
Rubinger also agreed in March to pay $1.4 million to settle a Justice Department civil complaint in which she didn't admit any wrongdoing. Rubinger has not been criminally charged. Her spokesperson, Erick Mullen, stressed that the Justice Department pursued a civil case and suggested she had been threatened and pressured by dangerous clients.
Court papers unsealed at the request of The reveal new details about Rubinger’s prescribing and the prominent athletes who helped build her public profile. Here are the takeaways from those records and interviews: Sports stars helped build Rubinger’s reputation Rubinger, 49, was an accomplished athlete from an early age, competing internationally in gymnastics as a child. She later rowed and pole-vaulted at Syracuse University.
The nurse practitioner's life took a near tragic turn in 2015, when she fell 20 feet from a cliff while mountain biking, suffering spinal cord injuries that left her in a wheelchair. She returned to work within three months. NBA players like Dwyane Wade wore orange wristbands in her honor, and athletes celebrated her as an inspirational figure and an important aid in their own recovery from injury.
Rubinger filled her website and social media accounts with testimonials from dozens of professional athletes. The DEA says Rubinger created rules to avoid detection The DEA alleges Rubinger’s illegal prescribing operation expanded over the years from professional athletes to clients who included members of an Ohio street gang, a confessed New Jersey drug trafficker and a New York City model. New clients were required to follow instructions contained in a document Rubinger called “THE RULES,” court records show.
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